This disclosure generally relates to content streams, and more specifically to creating, by an online system, a composite stream derived from two or more individual streams to be transmitted to client devices.
Live media content streams are increasingly popular today given that they serve as a convenient method for stream hosts to provide interesting content to their viewers in real-time. Stream hosts can gain significant popularity by live-streaming content that is of interest to many users. Today, many stream hosts are collaborating with one another such that a first stream host can create a stream and invite a second stream host as a guest. Therefore, the two stream hosts can create content that can appeal to both of their viewerships. As an example, the two stream hosts can live stream a conversation about a trending subject that is of interest to their viewers.
However, a live stream that includes two stream hosts is now composed of two different streams which presents a unique set of problems. For example, the two different streams may have very different settings (e.g. encodings, video/audio settings, targeted recipient client devices) because they originate from different media sources. Therefore, a composite stream, if inappropriately processed, risks being poorly received by viewers. Thus, online systems for generating the single live stream that includes streams from two different stream hosts challenged to appropriately handle the generation and transmission of the single live stream while consuming a manageable amount of computational resources.